Alice

Alice is one of the main characters of the novel. In the narrative present, she is living in a large house in the County Galway region. After suffering a psychiatric breakdown, Alice was hospitalized. After her release, she decided to move out of Dublin, where she was living and working as a novelist. Not long after arriving at her new rural home, she meets Felix on a dating app. The date goes poorly, and Alice writes about it to her best friend Eileen. She and Eileen met in college, and have remained close friends over the years.

Though she told Eileen that she wanted to remove herself from the publishing world until she felt more stable, Alice begins attending events, ceremonies, and readings shortly after her move. When she runs into Felix by chance at the convenience store and he invites her to his friend's party, she tells...